Fragile Suffering
by BlackOpal
Summary: Set after The Matrix Revolutions, Neo travels to the place of the dead and rejoins with Trinity but it is not a joyous reunion. It is there she informs him of their destiny and they suffer the greatest sacrifice of their lives.


Disclaimer: I'm not earning money from writing this but instead am doing it for the pure enjoyment of writing my fanfic. And though it may come as a shock to you- I don't own The Matrix or any of its characters. That lovely title belongs to Larry and Andy Wachowski, Joel Silver, and Warner Brothers with a few others scattered among them.

Dedication: For Snazza and Madi because they are the two bestest friends a girl could ask for, they edit without asking and love without caring! 

Pain. His entire body was a furnace. It was a throb he had never known before. His body screamed and willed itself to shut down- it couldn't take the pain. Blood was oozing, sending an agonizing heat through his delicate veins... pouring out from the gashes he had gotten only minutes ago.  And yet- he couldn't remember how he got them. He touched a purple bruise that had been smarting above his abdomen and winced. He ran his fingers tenderly up and down every bump of his etiolated skin until his fingers caught on something.

He looked down and found his entire naked body covered in white silk. It clung to his cuts but it did not hurt. Instead it soothed, its tenuity cradling the gashes and nursing them softly. He laid on a bed in the middle of a world of white that surrounded him and burned his eyes until he closed them.

When he opened them again blinking until he got used to the pure light, he was alone. Alone except for the woman who sat on the edge of the bed who sunk into the deep crevasses of the mattress. Her eyes were glued on him and only him.

She was stunning. Her body encased in a dress of white showing delicate curves of intimidating power. An angelic face twisted into a look of pain that didn't belong on her entrancing face. And yet, despite her beauty and pain, she held a strained smile.

His heart raced and his thoughts became clouded. Surely this image of perfection was just his imagination. He was suffocating. In admiring her wholeness, he had forgotten to breathe. He did so now, breathing in short gasps.

In between his forced wheezes, he managed to release one word from his suffering lips- "Trinity."

He reached for her hand, craving to hold the warmth he once knew. His fingers nearly grasped hers but at the same moment she pulled it away.

"No Neo." 

It was her. Her perfect lips moved in soft sounds that only her voice could make. It sent his body into convulsions of longing, longing to touch the skin he knew so well, longing to kiss the depths he had memorized and longing to dissolve into her. He longed to do anything to be close to her, to know she was real.

But in that instant, in those words he knew everything.

"I can't touch you, can I?" It was already known. He could never again hold her. She would forever be forbidden.

With tears glistening in her eyes she managed to shake her head, a silent conformation of his worst fears.

Still, despite this, his hand crept on top of her. It remained hovering over top of hers, the closest they could ever get to touching.

"Where am I?" He asked. The place they were in was not the Matrix, nor was it the real world or the in between place he had once been.

"You've died," she said. "This is the place of the dead."

Something about the way she said it, in a way that was wrong.

"I shouldn't be here?"

"No." Her lips barely moved.  

He shuddered. She held so much suffering it wounded him. She had to tell him what he would have to do.

"Will I ever be here?" He was afraid of the answer, the answer he already knew.

Again with her lips hardly stirring she uttered, "No."

Defeated he laid back down, cherishing the comfort of the bed. His head was jammed with thoughts, each and everyone exploding with emotions.

"You're The One Neo." She continued. "It's your duty to stay in the real world, the world that once was The Matrix. You have to keep the peace. You have to make sure the machines will never again attempt to destroy mankind- even if that means living for all eternity."

"I can't," he said. It came out strained, scared... and he was. "You're asking me to live forever. It's torture, forever without you... Trin, I can't live without you."

She smiled a faint smile. "I love you."

And oh God, how long had he waited to hear those words. Through out the fight that killed him he had hoped somewhere to hear those words again. And now, he had them. He played them over and over again, like a broken record he could never grow tired of.

She laid down beside him. He turned to face her. It took all of his self-control not to touch her, but he knew that even if he did his hands would only pass through her, demolishing her fragile shell. She would vanish. He could smell her, it was a foreign smell that he concluded was because of the days locked in the place of the dead. It didn't belong on her. It flooded his nose and strangled him with its fierceness and he longed to wash the horrible scent off her. He hated himself for letting her die, hated himself for sending her to a place as horrible as this...

"I will be with you." Her fingers traced his jaw, three inches above it.

He nodded. That was her sacrifice. Like him, she would forever live on, protecting him.

"If I die tomorrow, will I see you?" He asked. And again, he already knew the answer.

"No." She exhaled slowly before adding, "I will fade away and no longer able to guard you."

"I love you."

That broke her. Her tears flowed down her eyes and her sobs became louder and louder before they ceased.

"I'm sorry," he said. "I'm sorry I couldn't save you."

"It's not your fault. We can't chose our destinies." Her voice was already vanishing.

"We should."

And he was gone, back in the home he once had before the revolution, before he knew The Matrix existed... before Trinity.


End file.
